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More of a curiosity than anything else, but has anyone heard or have had experience working in an Asia office of a US firm? I'm mostly interested in large firms like MoFo, Latham, etc. with offices in places like China, Hong Kong, Japan.

I am mainly curious about the following, but any anecdotes/observations would be welcome:

1) Are there special requirements above and beyond the regular OCI thresholds to get into these positions?

2) Do they do similar quality of work as their US counterparts?

3) Are the hours and "culture" comparable?

4) Is it difficult to return to the US after going abroad as an first-year associate?

Two anecdotes. One was a lateral, one was an internal transfer from our Asia office to US office.

One only worked on very large deals...so this person only did one deal at a time rather than juggling multiple deals like most corporate associates. This person had decent substantive skills but had trouble adjusting to balancing mutiple conflicting priorities.

The other person was very slow in Asia. The office was small and the person's skills were not really developed like a typical associate (i.e. as a third year, this person could only really do the work of a first year).

Both had personal reasons for wanting to work in the Asia offices (think family or spouse connection near the Asian office).

I know one of them did a fair amount of work for partners in the US or clients in the US so it meant lots of odd hours.

If you plan to be in the US long term, I would go straight to the U.S. office, personally (and I really do love traveling around Asia and could see myself retiring in Asia).